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SETI@home: Team 6100

Daniel Knight - 2001.08.14

2001 – Team 6100 has 18 members and has completed 301 work units since May 2, 2000. Over the last dozen work units, we are averaging 111 hours, 42 minutes. The total contribution of Team 6100 is 3.68 years of CPU time.

On May 1, 2000, I set up my 6100/66 with Mac OS 8.1, 40 MB of memory, a 256 KB L2 cache, Virtual Memory turned off, and SETI@home 2.0.4 software (version 3.0.3 is now mandatory – and much slower). For maximum efficiency, I turned off AppleTalk and run SETI@home as an application, not a screen saver. By doing this, setting graphics to 640 x 480 and 1-bit color, and then rolling up the SETI@home window when the program is running, the 6100 is able to run through work units as efficiently as possible.

I was unable to connect to the SETI@home server that evening, but I did start the following afternoon. My 6100 completed its first work unit in 59 hours, 23 minutes, 13.3 seconds – not bad for a computer introduced six years earlier. This is a good fraction of the speed of my PowerBook G4/400.

Under SETI@home 3.0.3, work units are running 107-151 hours and averaging 121.3 hours. That’s much slower than with the old software, but it’s apparently doing a lot more work, too.

Still, an average of 121.3 hours is fast enough. SETI@home assumes a work unit has been lost if it doesn’t come back in a week – seven days – 168 hours. Even with SETI@home 3.0.3, these 6100s continue contributing to the effort.

The 6100 can do that. In fact, each 6100 can do about 1.4 units per week, about 70 per year. My three 6100s should be able to complete 4 units per week between them. It’s not a huge amount, but if enough 6100 owners band together, it will continue adding up.

Joining Team 6100 is easier than joining other SETI@home teams. You don’t need a password; you just need to sign on as team6100@reformed.net when you first launch SETI@home.

Since this article was first posted, a lot of changes have taken place. SETI@home now uses BOINC software, which requires Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger or later, a G3 or newer Mac that can run Tiger, 200 MB of drive space, and 128 MB RAM, although 256 MB is recommended. There is no way to run any version of OS X on the 6100, so Team 6100 no longer exists. This page is retained for historical purposes.

Here’s all you have to do:

Have a 6100/60 or 66 that can connect to the Internet and can run SETI@home uninterrupted for at least 120 hours per week. (No chipped or otherwise accelerated 6100s, please, this is very much a low-end project.) You should have 40 MB of physical memory so you can turn Virtual Memory off. Between the OS and SETI@home, you need about 28 MB of RAM.

Configure your 6100 to run efficiently: turn off AppleTalk, QuickTime, Virtual Memory, and other unnecessary control panels and extensions. You need Internet access and should have Window Shade (which is part of the Mac OS these days).

Install SETI@home and restart your computer.

Sign on as “team6100@reformed.net” (without quotes). Run SETI@home as an application, not as a screen saver, for fastest performance.

Once SETI@home is successfully loading the first work unit, scroll up the application window. This greatly reduces the load on your 6100. (In screen saver mode with graphics running, I’ve heard it can take 400 hours to complete a work unit!)

Email me with Team 6100 as the subject to let me know you’re joining the team. I’ll add you to the list below, along with details about your computer and OS.

Optional: Once you’ve completed your first work unit, let me know how long it took so I can list times on this page.